The meaning of the article by Dr. Chabot in Pediatrics, June 1971 concerning improved infant mortality between 1964 and 1968 in Denver puzzled me. I wonder whether there is any relation between the improved community health programs described and the happy results presented. Surely, many factors other than medical care affect infant mortality. For example, I wonder whether the author would suggest that the startling (to me) rise in infant mortality noted in Table II for Boston, Buffalo, Phoenix, Pittsburgh and Seattle, resulted from poorer delivery of medical care.
Eisner et al. recently described an unproductive screening program but omitted any consideration of the serious issues that affect the health of migrant children. There is no longer a need to document the health problems of California's rural poor, nor the ineptness with which health facilities handle those needs. The health concerns of farm workers remain sanitation, housing, diet, child care, and access to ongoing medical care.
The following data may correct the possible implication from their article that there is no serious health problem among "migrant" children:
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